Sprints and Bronze!

Saturday was definitely our busiest day yet. In the morining, we had to wake up early to get to the venue so we could test waxes and get the men to their start at 10:30. The sprints were 10k for the men and 7.5k for the women, each race with 2 shooting stages. The men's race went fast, Tim Burke shot clean and finished only 37 seconds behind Ole Einar Bjørndalen, the king of biathlon. Ole has won 5 Olympic gold medals, 14 World Championships, and 90 World Cups, as well as having been the only Biathlete ever to have also won a Cross Country Skiing World Cup. Tim Burke beat Bjørndalen on Thursday, so we are thinking that there might be a new king on the rise. After the men's race came a short break before the women's sprint, during the break I had lunch in the cafeteria for coaches and volunteers. The womens race was intense, with everthing changing with each shooting, in the end Tora Berger of Norway won. Later, we all got transport from the hotel to go to the medal ceremony for Tim. It wasn't a traditional medal ceremony (budget cuts), so all of the athletes got clothing from a local store. Immediately after Tim left the stage, Dad and I raced over to the other side of the plaza to see if we could get a table at pub that we had liked last year. We stepped inside and within 30 seconds had the only unreserved two-person table in the restaurant. We had a great meal of fish n' chips and a burger, afterwards we picked up some candy and ice cream at a gas station on the walk back. When we got back to the hotel, I was really tired so I went straight to bed.